Renaissance Children
by Angel Of Silver Light
Summary: Sakura Kinomoto knows she's different. It's just not her gold flecked eyes that set her apart. She's smarter and more athletic then others. Her only real competition is Syaoran Li who also has gold flecked eyes, eyes that tell her they are connected.
1. We Finally Meet

Hey everyone! First off, I want to thank everyone who even decided to read this fic. Thank you guys so much. Tomoyo and Eriol are a little OOC in this fic. Sakura is also OOC. Sorry! Please be easy on me. This is my first fic. Flames are welcome but please do not be too harsh. Well, enjoy! I am reposting this chapter since I realized I made so many slips. Thanks to my reviewers. Thank you so much. I am going to post chapter two soon so do not worry!

Disclaimer: I do not own CCS. Also, I got the idea of this plot from Violet Eyes. Read it. It is a GREAT book!

"…" – regular conversation

'…' – thoughts

(…) – Me (though nearly none)

Well, on with the fic!

**~*Renaissance Children*~**

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I hated Syaoran Li for nine years before I finally met him.

            I had always thought I would recognize him instantly but I did not. I was too involved with my own schemes that afternoon down by the river.

            It had been my idea to come down to the river in the first place, to beat the muggy August heat by splashing around, but three hours had passed, and the heat had pulled ahead by five points and was winding up for another shot on goal.

            Just the way I had planned it.

            When the moment was right, I stood up. "I have and idea. Let's play War."

            Rika laughed. She thought I was kidding.

            Tomoyo knew better. She grinned evilly. "I'm game. What are the rules Sakura?" Tomoyo was always up for anything a bit reckless.

            The other sunbathing teenagers sat up, looking interested. I was their Idea Girl, the one who could always think of something to do.

            "We divide into two teams, the Pirates and the Landlubbers, on either side of the river," I said. "The Pirates try to keep the Landlubbers from reaching the Pirate side of the river with a flag." I looked around for a second, and then snatched up the extra T-shirt I had brought. "This is the flag. Pirates cannot come onto the Landlubber side of the river. If a pirate tags a Landlubber before she crosses the river, the Landlubber becomes a Pirate and tells all the secrets she knows. Everybody got it?"

            "Who carries the flag?" Tomoyo's boyfriend, Eriol, asked. A husky azure-haired boy who moved with the slightly stiff movements of a windup toy, his square face held its customary stoic expression. I knew I could count on him to keep things from getting too rowdy.

            "That's the secret," I told him.

            Nobody else had any questions so we separated into two teams of five people each. "Five minutes to plan strategy and then the war starts," I said.

            The Pirates, Eriol in the lead, waded across the sluggish brown river. It was quite shallow, thigh-deep in one hollow, knee-deep everywhere else, and dotted with sandbars.

            Tomoyo, Rika, and two other girls were on my team. We formed a huddle.

            "Who gets the flag? I don't want it." Rika nervously tucked a stand of waist-length curly shoulder-length brown hair back behind her ear. 

            "Sakura," Tomoyo said. "She's the best runner."

            I shook my head. "They'll expect me to have it. You take it. Toss it to someone else if you think they're going to catch you."

            We spent another minute discussing strategy before deciding to split up. Tomoyo would go downriver, and I would go upriver to draw off the Pirate forces while Tomoyo zigzagged across and the two other girls tried to protect her.

            While Rika was doing the countdown, Tomoyo slyly handed me back the flag. She winked at me, and I winked back. Now if the other three were captured and turned into Pirates they would give false information.

            "On your marks, get set, go!"

            Singing, "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum", Eriol's Pirate team splashed into the water, eager to head us off. The current got stronger out towards the middle, and one of the boys was knocked off his feet for a moment. I saw Tomoyo swerve left around him and heard one of the girls shout and turn Pirate, but noticed little after that.

            I turned and ran upriver. One of the boys, Rei, ran parallel to me, ready to cut me off when I tried to dross the river. Eriol had obviously assigned each Pirate one Landlubber to watch.

            I let Rei keep pace close to the Landlubber side of the river until the bridge loomed ahead. The river was not very wide, but from the sandy bottom, the bridge looked like the feat of engineering it was: three Y-shaped towers cradling a concrete road.

            I put on a sudden burst of speed and headed up the steep grassy bank on my side of the river. Rei swore as he realized my intention, and I grinned. I had not said you necessarily had to go _through_ the river to get to the other side. Since he was so close to the Landlubber_ bank, he would have to race to beat me back across the river in time to cut me off. Better yet, he would be slowed down by having to check constantly to make sure I did not double back to trick him. I loved games like this._

            A shout from downriver told me Tomoyo had finally been captured, and now everyone knew I had the flag.

            Rei would assume that I would cross the bridge using the regular pedestrian sidewalks along the bridge's roadway, but instead I gasped a lungful of air and headed for the single land walkway used by maintenance workers that ran under the bridge.

           Halfway to my goal I was forced to break step to avoid colliding with a brown-haired boy. (A/N sound familiar?). He was a stranger; not part of the game.

            He spun around. "What's the rush? Is something on fire?"

            "I'm being chased by Pirates", I called back between strides.

            "Pirates?" Intrigued, he ran after me, legs flying in time with mine.

            "Bloodthirsty Pirates after treasure," I told him.

            He drew even. "In that case, would you mind if I joined you?" He did not even sound out of breath.

            I flashed him a grin. "If you can keep up." I poured on the speed. I had just spent two weeks at a summer volleyball camp with a sadistic coach who made us run five sets of lines a day, and I was in great shape. (A/N Believe me. You do not want to know what lines are. Ugghh XP) The wind tore through my long auburn hair, and my thigh muscles burned pleasantly.

            The boy lengthened his stride, turning the run into a real race. I beat him onto the one-lane hidden walkway by half a step. My footsteps echoed loudly on the planking, but it seemed quite sturdy and there were handrails on both sides. I kept to the middle and let fly with my elbows to keep him from passing.

            I snuck a glance down the river, the view was good from this height and not blocked by trees, as it was from above, and saw that everyone was running toward the pirate end of the bridge to cut me off except for Rika, who seemed to be sitting on the riverbank, held at bay by one Pirate. Of course, she was also keeping Sasuke out of the race, so that was ok.

            When I was, two-thirds of the way across, Tomoyo gained the bridge. "Avast, me hearties!" she yelled. When Tomoyo switched loyalties, she did it wholeheartedly.

            I stopped dead. "Oops."

            "Turn around, I'll cover your retreat", the brown-haired boy offered.

            "Nah. Rei will have cut off the other side." I was trapped. The Landlubbers had lost.

            Funny thing, but I had never like losing. Something reckless surged inside of me.

            "There's something I forgot to tell you," I said looking over the railing as Tomoyo pounded loser. It really was quite a distance down. Death to fall. The brown water moved hypnotically below, drawing the eye so one unconsciously leaned forward...

            (A/N No, Sakura is not going to suicide.)

            "What?" the boy asked.

            "We're playing boys versus girls. You're a Pirate." I seized the railing with both hands and flipped over headfirst.

            I had practiced the same move over and over on the uneven bars in gymnastics, so it was not quite as dangerous as it looked, but I must admit the kaleidoscope of sky and water did look a little scary before my feet landed neatly on the girder I had spied earlier. Tomoyo yelled, and guilt pricked my smugness. She and the boy probably thought I had committed suicide.

            He swung his leg over the side and started to follow me. He did not yell, although he did look a little pale underneath his tan. "Show off."

            I went sideways toward the last Y-support holding up the bridge. Each Y-support had two legs rising out of a concrete base and crossbeams X-ing the two together every three feet. They looked like giant ladders, and I quickly started down. The boy followed.

            Hand over hand, strut by strut, he chased me down the giant steps.

            "Exactly what is the treasure?" he asked.

            My arms and legs moved rhythmically. "A flag."

            I hooked my ankles around a horizontal crossbar, let go with my hands, and hung upside down. I took the T-shirt-flag out from under my shirt and threw it into the river, just as the boy slid down a big X and tagged me.

            "Too late!" I swung myself up again, untangled my legs, and seated myself comfortably on the bar. Together we watched the T-shirt as it unsnagged itself from a rock a floated away. It had just brushed against the Pirate shore when Tomoyo's head popped into view above us.

            She was gasping for breath. "Sakura, you're crazy!" She seemed to notice the boy with me for the first time. "And you're just as nuts as she is."

            "Hi," the boy said back.

            "Nice of you to drop by", I added.

            She glared, but was too busy sucking in air to say anything.

           I used the time to take a closer look at my companion. He was around my age, seventeen, maybe a year older, and, in addition to being very fit and tanned, he was extremely good looking. Thick, messy chestnut brown hair, straight brown brows, a strong jaw, and amber eyes. He was to die for. Very sweaty, but then, so was I. I grinned at him like an idiot. There were not very many people who could keep up with me.

            "Are you going to introduce us?" Tomoyo demanded as Eriol caught up with her. He looked unruffled, as if he could have single handedly stopped the Iran-Iraq war and finished in time for supper.

            "Nope," I said cheerfully, I relented under her stare. "I can't. I don't know his name."

            "Ah." Tomoyo nodded wisely. "You just happen to run into each other _three quarters of the way up a bridge." Her voice rose at the end._

            I tried to be helpful. "On the riverbank, actually."

            Eriol saved Tomoyo from more teeth gnashing. "I'm Eriol Hiragizawa. This is Tomoyo Daidouji."

            I smiled at the boy. "And I'm Sakura Kinomoto."

            "A cherry blossom? Now, why didn't I guess that?" His smile was warm, amused, and very interested in me. I did not mind. I was interested right back.

Tomoyo interrupted our eye-lock. "That's your cue. Now you say, 'My name is …' "

            "Syaoran, Syaoran Li."

            It was five in the afternoon, and the sun was shining hard enough to require sunblock, glinting off water; but I felt as if I had been plunged into an ice bath.

            My face stiffened, my smile ironing out. "Li? L-i instead of L-e-e?" I looked more closely at his eyes. They had small flecks of gold. A dead give-away if I had been paying attention.

           Tomoyo looked merely curious, Eriol calm as always, but something shifted beneath Syaoran's smile. "Why yes. Have we met before?"

            "No." Flatly.

            "Then how do you know how to spell my name? It's rather unusual." He was still smiling pleasantly, but the light flirtation had evaporated.

            "I saw it on a trophy."

            Before anyone could say another word, I descended rapidly, practically running away, although I never ran from anything.

            I was so agitated that I almost forgot the whole purpose of the game I had instigated: to check out the view of the river that was normally hidden by the curve in the riverbank.

            As I had expected, the river was another dead end.

*Later*

            Syaoran Li.

            The name kept whispering through my mind that night, throwing me into turmoil.

            Syaoran Li was here. In town.

I punched my pillow and remembered the first time I had ever heard his name.

            I was in the first grade at the time, a student of the terrible Miss Dotson. She and I had become enemies on the first day of school. 

            I set out to be a little devil. I do not know why. There was just something about the woman that got to me. I pretended to snore when she lectured us. I waved my hand wildly in the air, begging to be called on to give the answer, and then said, "Can I go to the bathroom?" I brought frogs to school and shot rubber bands at the ceiling.

            On this particular afternoon, Miss Dotson handed around a worksheet with the words, "When I grow up I want to be a ______." Three were pictures of a police officer, a firefighter, a doctor, a carpenter, and a teacher, and then there was space for us to draw our own if it was not on the list.

            She went around the classroom, stopping at each desk, complimenting Ashley on her coloring, correcting Peters' spelling of "movie star", telling Jamie that she would have to study hard to become an astronaut…until she got to my desk.

            "And what do you want to be Sakura?"

            "A tree." I showed her the picture I had drawn.

            She laughed. "You can't be a tree. You were supposed to draw what you want to be when you grow up."

            "I want to be a tree," I said stubbornly." The tree had been a trick, but I did not like being laughed at.

            "Well you can't be one," she said crossly.

            "Why not?"

            "You're a person, not a tree."

            "So?"

            "So you can't turn into a tree." She was tiring of the game.

            "But you told we could be anything we wanted if we worked hard enough."

            She did not like that reminder. "Don't be difficult. Pick something else." She moved onto examine Davy's scribble.

            But I did not pick something else. I sat there and remembered everything I could about trees. While the other children opened their math workbooks, I cut out paper leaves and put them in my hair. When I stood up, I shed them like the fall trees outside.

            Miss Dotson took the leaves away from me, but the minute her back was turned, I colored my arms and face green with a marker. Bright green. Frog Green. When she tried to make me go to the bathroom to wash it off, I clung to my desk with hands, screaming, "Stop! You will tear up my roots and kill me! Help!"

            For the rest of the day I wilted as if I had not been watered, and I refused to answer questions. "Trees don't know math."

            At the end of the day, worn to a frazzle, Miss Dotson "transplanted" me to the Quiet Corner. "I swear, Sakura, you're almost as bad as Syaoran Li."

            If she had meant to intimidate me, she failed. I immediately aspired to behave worse than Syaoran Li. Fortunately for Miss Dotson, halfway through the school year my father was transferred to another town, and we moved.

            We moved frequently, Five times in the nest ten years, and in every town, I lived in there were signs of Syaoran Li presence.

            "That's a good idea, Sakura," my teachers would say, "but Syaoran Li had the same idea and we did it last year".

            "The volleyball team won Zones last year, but of course, we had Syaoran Li on our team then," the coaches would say.

            "…And the winner for the most boxes of chocolate sold is Sakura Kinomoto. Congratulations, Sakura. I didn't think anyone would ever touch Syaoran Li's record, but you've come very close."

            "I wish Syaoran hadn't moved away", my girlfriends would sigh. "He was the greatest."

            I almost came to hate him.

            When I moved to Chinchaga last fall, virtually the first thing I did was examine all the trophies for the telltale brass nameplate. I was amazed and then overjoyed not to fine even one with Syaoran Li's name on it. No "Most Valuable Player 1986", no "Curling Championships", no "Intramurals". For once, I would put my name on the trophies first: "Sakura Kinomoto 1987". When he moved to town after I left, people would say, "Too bad Sakura moved. She could always come up with great ideas."

            It had never occurred to me that we would be in the same town at the same time.

            Because of the eerie way he had always moved one town ahead of me, I had assumed his dad must have the same kind of job as mine did and that their employers were rotating them on purpose.

            I got my first inkling that things might not be so simple the next evening at Tomoyo's house.

            Her pregnant stepmother was having a baby shower and Tomoyo claimed she would go nuts alone listening to a bunch of women ooh and ahh over fuzzy sleepwear with fuzzy feet. And "Raven will be so careful not to tear the wrapping paper; she'll fold it all up to reuse it. What is she going to use it for I ask you? None of her friends are pregnant; they've all had their kids." Resentment shaded Tomoyo's voice as I followed her down into the basement den.

            Tomoyo did not get along with either her stepmother or her father.

            Witness our first meeting back in January, when I would persuaded the entire social studies class to lie about their names to our new teacher. "Then tomorrow answer to your real name and the next day switch again. By Friday we should have him totally confused, all right?"

            "One small problem," Tomoyo had said, looking cool and tough in a black long-sleeved shirt and acid-wash jeans, her violet tied up in a high ponytail. "Mr. Daidouji knows me, so I'll have to go by my real name."

            I did not find out Mr. Daidouji was her father until two days later, and she never told him about out joke. Her dad still sometimes called me Naoko.

            I expected Tomoyo to ask me why I'd run off the day before, but she only referred to it obliquely. "You should have stayed longer yesterday. We had a marshmallow cook-off to see who could get the best golden tan. Then we did polka dots and stripes. We had a blast."

            My stomach tightened, "Whose idea was that?" As if I could not guess.

            "Syaoran's, He's cool. Eriol asked him to play volleyball with us on Saturday. We're always short a player." Tomoyo looked at me sideways, but I did not object.

            Inside my heart sank. In one short evening he had managed to get in tight with all my friends.

            I changed the subject, and we talked about movies clothes while listening to rock music. Loud rock music. Def Leppard and Bon Jovie. White Snake.

            "This is the only way to listen to music," Tomoyo said. "So loud you can feel it in your chest."

            Just before eight, when the guests were scheduled to arrive, Mr. Daidouji came down-stairs and asked Tomoyo to turn the music down.

            "What?" Tomoyo pretended not to hear.

            "Turn it down!"

            She turned it down one notch.

            He winced. "More"

            She turned it down two more notches. "How's that?"

            "All right", he said grudgingly, and started back up the stairs.

            "Wouldn't want to disturb the unborn child," Tomoyo said softly.

            He paused at the top, a slim neatly dressed man with thinning hair. He looked oddly helpless. "I don't understand how you can listen to this stuff. You used to love classical music. How come you never play the piano anymore?"

            "I have a tin ear," Tomoyo said.

            "You were so good at it."

            "Sometimes we outgrow things," she said between clenched teeth.

            He just shook his head and left.

            Tomoyo hugged her elbows, staring straight ahead. "He doesn't listen. I've told him a hundred times I'll never play the piano again."

            For the first time, I noticed the piano in the corner of the room. Tomoyo had done her best to bury it under stacks of paper and some clothes.

            I risked a question. "Were you a child prodigy or something?"

            "You'd think so, but no. I just took some piano lessons as a kid." Tomoyo clearly did not want to talk about it. "Which movie do you want to watch first? _Police__Academy__ 3 or _Top Gun?_" She held up the two tapes._

            I voted _Top Gun even though we had already seen it once before, and we drooled over Tom Cruise. Tomoyo had provisioned the den with soda pop and chips, so we did not poke our heads upstairs all evening._

            Raven called down for us to go to sleep at one o' clock. We broke out the sleeping bags but continued to talk for and hour.

            Just before we dropped off to sleep, Tomoyo questioned Syaoran again. "He was asking about you. Did you know him before?" She laughed "Or should I say after? Get it?"

            I did not get it, and my heart began to pound against my rib cage. "What do you mean?"

            But Tomoyo was through being indiscreet. She looked at me in admiration. "You never slip do you? I catch myself half a dozen times a day about to say the wrong thing, but you never slip. It is disgusting. I had better go to sleep before I cost dad a thousand buck. Good night." She turned over and slid straight into dreamland.

            I lay awake half the night, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out what she had meant. I felt chilled, as if I had touched the tip of an ice burg but had not yet begun to comprehend the vast, dim shape below.

*A/N YAY! That's chapter one! Hope you liked it! The next chapter coming up is called The Kiss. Mwahahahahaha. Here is a preview.

_            Syaoran read my mind. "I'm sorry for throwing you in the pool." He looked sincere, but I did not trust him._

_            "Good," I said._

_            Syaoran's lips quirked. "Friends, then?" He held out his hand._

_            Mom was watching. "Of course." I bared my teeth so Syaoran would know I was lying, gave his hand the limpest of clasps, then swept up to my room._

_            My mom followed me ten minutes later. She looked impatient. "All he did was throw you in the pool. I've seen you push Tomoyo in lots of times."_

_            She was right, I acknowledged silently. It was not being thrown in the pool that had shaken me. After lying in the sun, the water had been a pleasant shock._

_            What had rattled me was his kiss…_

To be continued…

~Angel of Silver Light


	2. The Kiss

This is for all the people that reviewed my story.

**Miss Dace: Well I used CCS for this story because I think Syaoran would fit the character as a bit of a playboy. Sorry! It is not exactly according to manga but at least Tomoyo and Sakura are best friends! ^^;; Thanks for reviewing!**

**kawaii-syaoran713: Hey! Thanks for reviewing and thank you!**

**dark-death-angel: Thanks for telling me my mistake and thanks for reviewing!**

**The Rogue Shadow: Thanks for the tips and thank you so much for reviewing!**

**Dark Koorime0-0: Thanks for reviewing!**

**Feyla: Thanks for the note and noticing my slip. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Little Wolf Blossom: Thanks for the tip! And thank you for reviewing!**

**BGR: Sorry! I promise that it will make more sense in the coming chapters. Just hang in there and thanks for reviewing!**

**MarikIshtarRH01970: Thank you! Thank you for reading my fic and reviewing!**

**Sakura Blossom-Cilla-85: p: Thanks! Thanks for reading my fic and reviewing!**

**Erika: Thank you! And thanks for reviewing!**

Disclaimer (I forgot to put it in last time! Thanks Clarice!): I do not own C.C.S. also the plot is from Violet Eyes. Read it! It is a great book.

~Angel of Silver Light

"…" – regular conversation

(…) – Me! (Though not too much)

**~*Renaissance Children*~**

            I dreamed of choking smoke and twisting orange flames. Flames that roared, taller than my head, taller than the ceiling. I was small, crawling on hands and knees like a mouse chased by a cat, searching for a bolthole. But the fire cut me off, climbing the curtains and ringing the window. Burning timbers fell from the ceiling, and I screamed, trapped. As the ferocious heat of the blaze began to singe my hair, I squeezed my eyes shut.

            Fire painted the inside of my eyelids…

            I jerked awake and found myself still in Tomoyo's basement. No smoke, no fire, just a florescent light overhead that all but blinded me. I tolled over and tried not to shake with relief. It was just a dream. And old dream, at that. An old memory I wished to forget.

            "It's eight o'clock," Raven said. She was standing at the top of the stairs. Heartlessly, she turned on the rest of the lights. She was a tiny, exotic-looking woman with dark hair and high cheekbones. Tomoyo had once told me she had the blood of Indian princesses in her veins. I could almost believe it. Raven had an inborn serenity that made me think of royalty.

            When Tomoyo pulled a pillow over her head and grumbled that it was too early to get up, Raven calmly reminded her that Eriol was coming to pick her up at eight-thirty.

            Tomoyo gave a shriek worthy of a scalded cat and leaped out of bed. "I haven't even taken a shower yet!"

            Raven looked amused. "Don't worry. I told him to give you an hour."

            "You told him?" Tomoyo raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You actually spoke to him on the phone?"

            For reasons that baffled me, Tomoyo's parents did not approve of Eriol.

            "Yes," Raven said evenly.

            Tomoyo nodded. "Of course, if you hadn't told him, he would be sitting in your driveway for half and hour." She headed for the bathroom, and Raven went away.

            We each took a shower, and then shared the tiny bathroom to do our hair and makeup. It took me ten minutes to blow-dry my hair, put on a touch of eye shadow, and blush.

            Tomoyo carefully outlined her left eye with black eyeliner and mock-glared at me. "How can you be done already? I still look like I've been hit by a tornado!"

            Tomoyo had twice as much hair to style as I did, and her recent perm had left her with a tangled mess of corkscrew curls, but I struck a pose and said, "It's because I'm perfect and you're not."

            She laughed. "Well, that's true. We mortals can't be expected to compete with a goddess like you."

            Her remark disturbed me. "I'm hardly a goddess."

"Next thing to it. Honey-brown hair, green gold-flecked eyes, skinny. You've got all the boys after you."

            "Not all of them."

            "Name one."

            "Eriol." His loyalty to Tomoyo was legendary.

            "That's different," Tomoyo said without explaining why. "Name another one."

            "Sasuke, then", I named my ex-boyfriend. We had had a particularly messy breakup a month ago.

            "Ha. Sasuke had the biggest crush on you of the lot. Why do you think he acted like such a jerk when you two stopped dating?"

            I had not thought of it quite that way. "Yoshiyuki Terada." Everyone knew that he liked Rika.

            "Only because you've never paid any attention to him. He was sweet on you back in January. If you smiled he'd switch loyalties in a minute."

            "You're exaggerating," I said, a little more sharply than I had intended.

            She shrugged. "Not really. You could be a movie star if you wanted to. You naturally attract people. Even Syaoran. You snubbed him horribly yesterday, and he was still asking about you."

            I did not want to hear about Syaoran. "I'm hungry. Are you almost done?"

            Tomoyo gave her hair one more touchup and nodded. "Let's go."

            Tomoyo was wearing a tight, black shirt that spelled REBEL in glistening white crystals. A fitted jean skirt loosened towards the bottom of her model-like legs with a long slit up the right side. Her silky violet hair hung up high in a ponytail.

            A fitted pink spaghetti strap faded from dark to light. With a matching jean jacket on top, I wore low-rise stretch denim jeans with a large white leather belt. My sleek auburn hair dangled down in loose curls.

            If I had been voting on the perfect person, I would have voted for Raven. My mother would let us feed ourselves with toast and cereal. On a special occasion, she might have made bacon and scrambled eggs. Raven had set out cloth napkins and cutlery that matched. Golden waffles steamed on a china plate and fresh fruit brightened a crystal bowl. The sun shone in through the kitchen windows and all the white counters and cupboards gleamed.

            Tomoyo's jaw set. "I told you not to go through all this trouble."

            "I enjoyed it", Raven said mildly. "Besides, it wasn't all for you. Your father and I already ate. He had a golf game." School would begin next week and Mr. Daidouji would soon have to give up his early morning games. 

            I dug in. The food tasted delicious and I said so. Raven nodded serenely from her rocking chair in the corner of the living room. The turquoise baby blanket she was crocheting frothed over her lap.

            "What are you going to do today?" Tomoyo scowled suspiciously.

            "I thought I might do the laundry today", Raven said unruffled.

            "I'll go get my hamper." Tomoyo stomped down the stairs.

            Raven stared after her a moment, yarn wrapped around her fingers. "I don't understand that girl. She's furious at her father about the baby, but ever since she found out that I am pregnant, she will not let me do any hard work. She does all the vacuuming, all the hauling things up and down the stairs, and all without my saying a word. I turn around and it is done. Every time I sit down to supper, she would pour me a glass of milk and when I was having morning sickness, she did all the shopping and cooking. Yet she is not any friendlier. We aren't any closer." She sighed.

            "How long have you and Mr. Daidouji been married?" I called Raven by her first name, but because he was my teacher, I had trouble thinking Mr. Daidouji as Keiji.

            "Six years, but Tomoyo's been living with us only for the last four."

            I wanted to ask where Tomoyo had lived before that; I'd never heard her so much as mention her real mother, but she came back up the stairs, hauling a basket of dirty clothes. She vanished into the laundry room and we heard the sound of a load being put in the washer. I was starting to see what Raven meant.

            The doorbell rang, and Tomoyo ran to get it. "That'll be Eriol."

            "Of course." Raven looked pointedly at the clock. It was exactly nine o' clock. Eriol was never early or late, always on time.

            I got up to follow Tomoyo, but Raven stopped me. "You seem like a nice girl, Sakura." She pronounced my name with an odd accent. "Tomoyo's father and I are concerned about her…attachment to the boy."

            "Boy?" I forced her to say the name.

"Eriol. We would appreciate your help." She did not say it directly, but she wanted me to break them up.

            The half-liking I had been feeling for her slithered down the drain. I could have told her the same thing I had told Mr. Daidouji, that Eriol was the best thing that had ever happened to his daughter and that I was a far more dangerous companion to her, Eriol would have never pulled the stunt I had on the bridge. Instead, I just said, "I like Eriol", and left it at that.

            "If you truly like him, you will help me. Tomoyo is no better for him than he is good for her. She is only dating him to rub it in her father's face. The situation is dangerous." Raven's voice was low and serious.

            Dangerous?

            "No." I went down the hall and found Tomoyo waiting for me at the door. She was tying her shoes and I could not see her expression, but I felt a slam of fear. Had she heard me talking to Raven?

            Tomoyo's relationship with her parents was fragile enough as it is-I did not want to damage it unduly-but at the same time, if Tomoyo had heard, I could not risk not telling her.

            It was a bitter thing, but even if I had not liked Tomoyo-and I did like her: her cynical sense of humor, her wildness, her absolute loyalty to her friends-we would still have been best friends, Because Tomoyo was sometimes indiscreet. Her tongue slipped and I got hints of puzzles within puzzles as I had last night. I needed her information, so while we were walking to Eriol's pickup truck I said, "Well that was interesting. You stepmother just tried to enlist me to her cause."

            Tomoyo's shoulders relaxed infinitesimally inside her purple windbreaker. She had heard. "Oh yeah? What did you tell her?"

            "That Eriol was nice"

            "He is," Tomoyo said softly. We had reached the pickup. "Don't tell him okay?"

            I mimed zipping my lips together, something that always cracked Tomoyo up. They must not have done that at her elementary school.

            Laughing, Tomoyo climbed into the pickup truck and scooted over close to Eriol. She gave him a slow kiss on the lips.

            He did not smile-he did so rarely- but his gaze was tender and his hand covered her for a moment before he shifted the truck into reverse and backed out of the driveway.

            (A/N I know. But as I said, Eriol is very OOC in this story. So are Sakura and Tomoyo.)

            His movements held a calm deliberation that I found soothing. Eriol could never be accused of being chatty, but when he did say something, it was usually worth listening to. His observations were concise and to the point. I often thought he was Tomoyo's rock, her anchor in the wild sea of her recklessness.

            Mr. Daidouji referred to Eriol as "that damn robot". If someone talked to me like that, I would not be too eager to pin my heart on my sleeve either.

            When Tomoyo and Eriol had first started dating five months ago, a buzz had gone through the entire school. Rika had whispered the news tome as if it were a scandal. I had not understood it then but Eriol was calm and reserved while Tomoyo was reckless and hyperactive at times. No body had so much as blinked when Sasuke and I had dated. It was the exact same situation. Sasuke was a party animal while I enjoyed parties but did not go to many.

            "Are you sure you don't want to come Sakura?" Eriol asked me as he slowed to a stop in front of my house. Raven probably thought we were all going to the movies together, but I was not dating anyone and felt like the odd man out.

            "Positive. All I want to do is laze around by the pool and improve my tan." A small lie. I fully intended to swim some lengths first.

            "All right", Eriol said, but there was a tiny crease in his forehead-the equivalent of a frown from anyone else. I remembered that he, too, had seen my odd reaction to Syaoran Li, and I was touched by his concern.

            (A/N Don't worry. This is an S+S fic.)

            "See you Saturday," I said cheerfully, before hopping out of the pickup. Saturday was the second-last day of summer vacation and our group had a big party planned.

            Inside the house, my mom sat in the living room with her long violet hair swept up in an elegant bun and newspapers all over the floor. She was taking a class in watercolors and was trying her hand at painting.

            I studied the greenish blue blobs on the easel and conclude them to be turtles in an ocean. At least I thought they were turtles.

            "What do you think?" mom asked cheerfully. "Should Picasso be shaking in his shoes?"

            "I don't think Picasso did watercolors," I said. Our eyes met and we laughed together.

            "Oh well," mom said, "I'm having fun. Do you have any plans for today?"

            "I thought I'd head over to the pool this after noon."

            "Can you pick up some green onions for supper? We're having company tonight."

            "No problem."

            The pool was full of little kids splashing around when I arrived so I decided to save the laps for later and sprawled out on one of the lounge chairs. I let the sun soak into my skin and tried, unsuccessfully, to not to think about Syaoran Li.

            I had just gotten relaxed when a shadow fell over me.

            Without looking up I said, "Would you mind moving? You're blocking the sun."

            "Why go to the pool if you're not going to swim?"

            I recognized the voice. Fortunately, my sunglasses hid my reaction to Syaoran's appearance. "To tan. The sun reflects off the water and you tan faster," I explained slowly as if I were talking to an idiot. I flipped over onto my side, ignoring him.

            He did not like that. Probably not very many girls had ever ignored him.

            "So what you're saying is that the closer you get to the water the better you tan?" he asked.

            "Give the man a prize," I said with obvious sarcasm.

            Quick as a cat, he scooped me up in his arms. I am five feet six, not exactly petite, and I have never been carried by a guy before. The shock of it blunted my reactions for a precious second.

            "What are you _doing_?"

            "Just trying to be helpful", he said blandly and kept walking.

            "Let me go!" I hit his chest with the heel of my hand.

            "Okay."

            At the last second, I realized he was holding me over the water and I grabbed furiously, trying to get a lock on his wrist so I could drag him in with me. He slipped free but I twisted while falling and grazed my head painfully on the side of the pool.

            I let myself slip down into the water, limp, trailing bubbles, then slowly bobbed back up in a perfect dead mans float. I was on the swimming team and could hold my breathe for close to two minutes.

            I felt a splash beside me and Syaoran grasped me under the arms and towed me back to the edge of the pool in a perfect lifeguard's hold.

            While he was hauling me out, I took two shallow breaths, but stayed perfectly limp. He positioned me on my back on the tile but instead of calling the lifeguard, he tipped my head back. Air passageway open. Then he pinched my nose closed and began to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

            A very strange form of resuscitation, I realized, as his lips shaped mine. More like a kiss.

            'He knew I was faking!'

            I almost jackknifed upright at the realization but managed to turn it into a weak cough instead. I rolled onto my side and heaved in several breaths just as two lifeguards dashed over.

            "Is she okay? What happened?"

            "I'm fine," I said weakly and coughed again.

            Someone crouched by my side. The devil himself. "Are you alright Sakura? You scared the hell out of me." Syaoran's voice was perfect, rough, and concerned but his eyes held unholy glee.

            It made me want to kick him. Hard.

            "You-you dropped me." My voice quavered.

            Our audience thought I was being a tad ungrateful. "He saved your life," someone said.

            "Did he?" I smiled bravely. "I don't know how I'll ever repay you." _I will pay you back for this if it is the last thing I do._

            Syaoran caught the unspoken message loud and clear, but he just grinned.

            I accepted the lifeguard's help up. "I want to go home now."

            Both the lifeguard's were male, so an older woman with two kids went into the dressing room with me to make sure I did not faint.

            I took and extra-long time washing my hair to make sure Syaoran would not hang around waiting for me outside. Then I thanked the woman and climbed on my bike.

            I pedaled home furiously. I was mad at myself for pulling such a juvenile stunt. I had wanted to get back at Syaoran for his trick, but I had not meant to worry anyone else. _Stupid stupid!_ But mostly I was mad at Syaoran for seeing through my ruse so easily. Every time I thought about the way he had kissed me, a red wave of fury and embarrassment rushed through me.

            The only good thing about it was that from now on I would not have to just pretend he was my enemy. Now he really was.

            Two blocks from home, I remembered the green onions and had to go back for them.

            I was sweaty, how, and mad when I finally arrived home. I heard mom laugh as I went in the door and swung around to the kitchen to drop off the onions.

            What I saw made me drop the onions and my jaws hang open. Sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, laughing with my mother, was Syaoran.

            "W-what are you doing here?" I said like a bumbling idiot.

            Mom frowned at my tone.

            "I came here to apologize," Syaoran said.

            Apologize my foot. "I meant, how did you know where I lived?" And could I live somewhere else?

            Mom spoke up unexpectedly. "Your father and Mr. Li work together. I have invited the Li's over to dinner this evening. Syaoran came over little early when he realized you were the one he would run into at the pool.

            My back prickled, and I glared at Syaoran. Exactly what had he told my mother about what happened at the pool? That I had almost drowned or that I had pretended to drown? I did not know which would be worse.

            As if he was reading my mind, Syaoran said, "I'm sorry for throwing you in the pool." He looked sincere but I did not trust him.

            "Good," I said bluntly.

            "Sakura!" Mom seemed to expect something more.

            "Apology accepted. And I apologize for calling you a brainless turd."

            Syaoran's lips quirked. "Friends then?" He held out his hand.

            Mom was watching, so I had to agree. "Of course." I said. All the while baring my teeth so Syaoran would know I was lying. I then gave his hand the limpest of handshakes then swept up to my room.

            My mom followed ten minutes later. "You weren't very gracious."

            "You weren't there," I said shortly.

            She looked impatient. "All he did was throw you in the pool. I've seen you push Tomoyo in lots of times."

            She was right, I acknowledged silently. It was not getting thrown in the pool that had shaken me. After lying in the sun, the water had been a pleasant shock.

            What had rattled me was his kiss.

*A/N And that's chapter two! Here is a preview of the next.

_            She did not seem to hear. "Read scene one Sakura."_

_            Syaoran smiled down at me. "Come on Sakura. I promise I won't bite."_

_            That did it. I marched up on stage. But I refused to do scene one where Laura first arrived at a decrepit mansion and made a fool of herself in front of Giles. I flipped quickly through the script. Didn't Laura have a scene where she did not scream, cry, or faint?_

_            I finally glimpsed a promise looking one._

_            "Page fifty one", I told Syaoran and launched into furious dialogue. " 'You're just like all the others. All you're interested in is my money!' "_

_            " 'That's not true! Will you listen to me? I can explain.' "_

_            " ' Explain?' "I shriveled him with my contempt. " 'How can you explain? The facts are self evident' "_

_            " 'There are extenuating circumstances,' " Syaoran/Giles pleaded._

_            " 'Your name isn't Giles Foster, it's Gary McFadden. You lied to me. How can you explain that?' " I demanded passionately, barely glancing at my lines, using Laura's anger to yell at Syaoran._

_            " 'Do you hate me?' " He asked the question through white lips afraid of the answer._

_            I threw it in his face, just as Laura, hurt and betrayed, would have done. " 'Yes! I hare you, I hate you, I hate you!' " She was hysterical. I skimmed quickly ahead to my next line-On no!_

_            I looked up, horrified, and saw Syaoran swallow a grin before Gary/Giles said grimly, " 'well since your opinion of me can't sink any lower, I might as well do this.' "_

_            I look frantically at Ms. Velez, hoping she'd call a halt to the scene, but it was too late. Syaoran had seized my shoulders and bent me backward in an old-movie-villain-style kiss. A real one, not a stage kiss…_


	3. AN SORRY!

A/N Hey! I am really sorry but because of Science Olympiad, I will not be able to update for a LONG time. I am really, really sorry. I hope you will forgive me. I will be able to update around March or April. Please forgive me!

~Angel of Silver Light


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